School Officials Indicted Over Not Reporting Student’s Sexual Assault Claims

She was suspended

Credit: Aurora Police Department

Three Denver middle school officials have been indicted after failing to properly report claims of sexual assault by a teacher on a 14-year-old student. Two of the administrators have also been placed on leave pending the outcome of the legal proceedings. The third official no longer works for the school district.

Prairie Middle School principal David Gonzales, assistant principal AJ MacIntosh, and former school counselor Cheryl Somers-Wegienka were named in the indictment. The student, who is referred to as “Child Victim” in the police affidavit to protect her identity, reported the assault back in 2013, when she was only 14 years old.

Instead of protecting the student, the indictment states that the administrators encouraged the student to “rethink” her claims, and eventually pressured her into saying she’d made the whole thing up. The student was then suspended for lying. School officials never notified the police. Unbelievable.

How awful for this poor girl! She went to her counselor hoping for protection, and was instead coerced into silence. The people who were supposed to shield and nurture a young girl instead punished her for speaking her truth. How absolutely shameful.